SBI Articles: September 10th

“Perhaps the video told us all we needed to know. A couple of SBI agents responsible for analyzing bloodstain patterns saw themselves as creative geniuses. When they reproduced a stain that backed up their theory of a suspect’s guilt – and captured it on tape – they were ecstatic. Steven Spielberg (or Peter Sellers) couldn’t have been prouder.

Now we learn, as The N&O reported yesterday, that the State Bureau of Investigation’s bloodstain pattern program for years was basically winging it. There were no written policies and the outfit operated with minimal supervision. Most training took place in-house, provided by an agent whose own training in the field was modest at best.

Attorney General Roy Cooper has “suspended” work by these analysts, and no wonder. Based on what’s been disclosed about their methods, they’d be laughed out of court if they showed up to testify.”

“Independent reviewers have removed the killing of Michael Jordan’s father from a list of cases mishandled by North Carolina’s State Bureau of Investigation, officials said Thursday.

Former FBI assistant director Chris Swecker said the case was pulled after a second look at the documents. Swecker’s review had concluded last month that the SBI failed to disclose that it had done four inconclusive tests on blood evidence in the James Jordan case. But Swecker said Thursday that he missed language in which the SBI had reported that “further analysis” failed to give conclusive results.

Defense attorneys for one man convicted in the Jordan case, Daniel Andre Green, had argued that the physical evidence used to convict him was weak.”